Monday, December 10, 2012

Climate Change Concerns: London's wet, mlld winters

For many years London, Ontario found itself at the center of a toxic triangle. We heard much about high CO2 measurements found in Sarnia (thank you to Chemical Valley), centres along the north shore of Lake Erie (thank you to many coal-fire energy plants in the Ohio Valley) and Burlington (thank you to Hamilton). We knew about high numbers of smog days in the summer.

["London is known for wet, warm winters" Photo by GH]

Now we find ourselves in the center of a cold conservative circle, where in spite of much evidence to the contrary, the average citizen is expected to believe that global warming is a thing of the distant past, and the cooling trend a few people have heard about somewhere should become cause for much celebration.

Though it isn't rocket science to read thermometers at 100s of meteorological centers around the world, record temperatures year by year on land and water, and average the results, I still like to seek out information from NASA, and not people within the cold conservative circle. Though 2011 may have been cooler than the previous year, on average, it still ranks as one of the top ten hottest years in the last 100 years. (Only 8 years have been warmer since 1880). We've experienced cool years on occasion in the past, but the trend since 1908 cannot be denied.

I feel a much smaller lifestyle is in order and the best purchase for the future is a small home or apartment near a bus stop. After a few more hot years or wet, mild winters, more people will likely agree.

***

The only thing that might be cooling is the amount of news about climate change in conservative newspapers. Do you know of one?